The emerging market Shanghai Super Bowl Shuffle

Published: Friday, May 24, 2013 at 05:27 PM.

Xia…xiachen…shangsheng! That’s Chinese for down…set…hike! Or what my sons tell me are offensive calls at the line of scrimmage. Whatever that is.

Why translate football signals to Chinese? Well, just about the time that many American parents are deciding that the sport has too many negatives for their children to participate, the game is beginning to gain a foothold in China. In a fascinating ESPN.com article entitled “Hard Knocks: Shanghai,” author Hua Hsu provides insight into how football is soaring in popularity in the world’s largest country.

One of four NFL international offices is located in China. Club teams, sandlot city squads, groups formed primarily of American ex-pats and sprinkled with Chinese youths, are springing up in major Chinese cities. Kids are watching football streamed over the internet and studying formations and strategy; they’re paying $250 a pair for cleats made down the street and shipped to America, but that can’t be purchased locally; they’re trying out at scouting combines and even receiving recruiting letters from American colleges. The game’s teamwork quotient appeals to many Chinese youth, most of whom have no siblings. Their participation, and the way they look in helmets and pads, provides them with a unique identity among their peers.

According to Hsu, the NFL is only mildly interested in producing a gridiron equivalent of basketball’s Yao Ming or golf’s Guan Tianlang. Instead, they are more focused on generating widespread popular fan interest and promoting the purchase of apparel items. No fools, they.

China is so populous, and represents such an enormous emerging market opportunity, that American-owned corporations of all kinds want to expand their reach to potential customers there. Richard Young, who serves as the NFL’s managing director for China, thinks there’s a connection between the NFL brand and Starbucks. “I don’t think Starbucks…said…We’ve got to beat tea. You’re never going to beat tea. But that doesn’t mean that Starbucks doesn’t have a really good business here.”

A certain number of Chinese will inevitably embrace all things Western, including football, coffee and a myriad of other products produced by American companies. When investors look for companies whose products can be marketed successfully to countries like China, they demonstrate an important understanding of the new global marketplace.

American politicians have historically posed the rhetorical question, “How will it play in Peoria?” Large cap American companies now ask themselves, “How will it fly in Shanghai?”

Will football catch on in China? Truthfully, it really doesn’t have to. When 20 percent of the world’s population resides in one nation, something can be only mildly popular and still produce comparatively powerful interest. As Randy Travis sang when he covered the old Brooke Benton classic, “It’s Just A Matter of Time.”

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Xia…xiachen…shangsheng! That’s Chinese for down…set…hike! Or what my sons tell me are offensive calls at the line of scrimmage. Whatever that is.

Why translate football signals to Chinese? Well, just about the time that many American parents are deciding that the sport has too many negatives for their children to participate, the game is beginning to gain a foothold in China. In a fascinating ESPN.com article entitled “Hard Knocks: Shanghai,” author Hua Hsu provides insight into how football is soaring in popularity in the world’s largest country.

One of four NFL international offices is located in China. Club teams, sandlot city squads, groups formed primarily of American ex-pats and sprinkled with Chinese youths, are springing up in major Chinese cities. Kids are watching football streamed over the internet and studying formations and strategy; they’re paying $250 a pair for cleats made down the street and shipped to America, but that can’t be purchased locally; they’re trying out at scouting combines and even receiving recruiting letters from American colleges. The game’s teamwork quotient appeals to many Chinese youth, most of whom have no siblings. Their participation, and the way they look in helmets and pads, provides them with a unique identity among their peers.

According to Hsu, the NFL is only mildly interested in producing a gridiron equivalent of basketball’s Yao Ming or golf’s Guan Tianlang. Instead, they are more focused on generating widespread popular fan interest and promoting the purchase of apparel items. No fools, they.

China is so populous, and represents such an enormous emerging market opportunity, that American-owned corporations of all kinds want to expand their reach to potential customers there. Richard Young, who serves as the NFL’s managing director for China, thinks there’s a connection between the NFL brand and Starbucks. “I don’t think Starbucks…said…We’ve got to beat tea. You’re never going to beat tea. But that doesn’t mean that Starbucks doesn’t have a really good business here.”

A certain number of Chinese will inevitably embrace all things Western, including football, coffee and a myriad of other products produced by American companies. When investors look for companies whose products can be marketed successfully to countries like China, they demonstrate an important understanding of the new global marketplace.

American politicians have historically posed the rhetorical question, “How will it play in Peoria?” Large cap American companies now ask themselves, “How will it fly in Shanghai?”

Will football catch on in China? Truthfully, it really doesn’t have to. When 20 percent of the world’s population resides in one nation, something can be only mildly popular and still produce comparatively powerful interest. As Randy Travis sang when he covered the old Brooke Benton classic, “It’s Just A Matter of Time.”